While out drinking, he meets an old army friend, Deek Torrance, who admits to being involved in shady activities, telling Rebus he can get his hands on "anything from a shag to a shooter".

Finally, Rebus's colleague Brian Holmes is put into a coma after being attacked from behind in the carpark of his favourite restaurant, the Elvis-themed Heartbreak Cafe.

Rebus's first action is to discuss the autopsy of the unidentified body with the pathologist Dr Curt, who still remembers it in grisly detail.

Siobhan mentions the "Bru-head Brothers", Tam and Eck Robertson, a pair of criminals who disappeared at around the same time as the Central fire.

When Rebus returns home, he receives grim news about his brother, who has just been found hanging by his legs from the Forth Rail Bridge.

The following day, while overseeing the dull minutiae of the Operation Moneybags surveillance, Rebus and Siobhan hear welcome news – Brian Holmes has recovered consciousness.

While he cannot remember anything about his assailant, he does tell Rebus that the final name in the Black Book refers to Eddie Ringan, the chef of the Heartbreak Cafe, who told Brian about the poker game.

Armed with two sketches of the Robertson brothers as they might appear today, Rebus visits several Cowdenbeath pubs, asking customers if they recognise them.

He has little luck, although a drunk old gambler claims he recognises one of the pictures, causing Rebus to suspect that one of the brothers may be working as a bookmaker.

Chief Superintendent "Farmer" Watson demands an explanation for Rebus's continued interest in the Central Fire, giving him twenty-four hours to come up with something concrete.

With few options left open to him, Rebus decides to talk to Morris Gerald Cafferty at his upmarket home in Duddingston.

While Cafferty reveals relatively little, he does admit that the Robertson brothers used to work for him as "general employees", but left his service years ago.

Smelling gas, she enters and discovers Eddie Ringan's body with the head inside the oven, an apparent suicide.

That night, Rebus meets with Deek Torrance in North Queensferry to buy the handgun, a Colt 45, which he hides in his car.

After checking the reservations book for the Heartbreak Cafe, he finds out that none of the customers remember Willie making a scene and storming out.

Siobhan, having checked the medical records of a Dundee hospital, reveals that Tam Robertson had broken an arm twelve years ago.

Returning to Fife, Rebus visits a bookmaker owned by Eck Robertson, living under a false name.

Determined to trap Cafferty once and for all, Rebus uses his contacts to set up a sting operation, with child molester Andrew McPhail being used as the unwitting bait.

In the foreword to Rebus: The St Leonard Years, Rankin says the Elvis-themed restaurant was something he'd seen on holiday in America and transplanted in Edinburgh for the story.